Navigating Sling TV just got a little easier – or, perhaps, just got a lot more like Netflix and Amazon Prime -- pushing the most popular shows to the top of its listings rather than siloing content in traditional channels.

“TV is about being entertained, and for the first time, the new Sling TV experience will be able to tailor programming suggestions to your interests,” said Roger Lynch, CEO of Sling TV. “This is the beginning of a reimagined experience, one more personalized and relevant to each viewer.”

In an interview with Bloomberg, Lynch said, “We wanted something more like Spotify rather than Comcast.”

Sling TV said the new interface eventually will be able to recognize that a customer prefers watching news content in the morning or kid shows on the tablet, modifying what’s presented on each.

The new UI puts content in buckets that include:

“MY TV,” which collects viewers’ most watched channels and shows and that eventually will offer up recommended content based on customer preference, as well as “hot” content based on viewing behavior across the service and social trends.

“ON NOW,” will curate based on what is currently on TV and will be organized by content categories, with plans to have it also learn customer behaviors and reorder content ribbons to align with those behaviors. Sling TV also plans to use ON NOW as an upsell to content on its “Extras” channels, offering purchased and subscription options.

“SPORTS” will show live and upcoming sports events and can be manually filtered based on the viewer’s preference.

“TV SHOWS” will list all currently available episodes of viewers’ favorite shows in one view, with new category filters include featured content, trending shows and full collections.

“MOVIES” will put all movies into one place including live, linear and on-demand content.

Sling TV’s new iteration is designed to boost subscriptions to the year-old service, which are estimated at 500,000 by Macquarie Capital USA, and to better position it in a segment that is likely to see an influx of new services launching in 2016, including a mobile-first app from AT&T and an oft-delayed play from Apple TV, one that could reset the game.

OTT services that include linear content are hot right now as traditional pay-TV operators continue to see subscriber erosion via cord cutting, cord-shaving and remain slow to attract cord-never Millennials.

Comments

READ THESE NEXT

Sling TV is planning to offer its first-ever pay-per-view (PPV) event, the much anticipated UFC grudge match that features a pair of light heavyweights. UFC 214: Cormier v. Jones 2 features current champ Daniel Cormier against ex-champ Jon Jones who last met in 2015 at UFC 182.

Hulu’s entry into live streaming will launch within the next few months for less than $40/mo., according to Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins, who also announced the service had reached a deal with CBS for its live content to go along with ABC and Fox.

Missing still is NBCUniversal, which, interestingly, is one of Hulu’s owners.